China is going to be the biggest emitter of carbon by 2010
The Australian
November 17, 2006
CHINA yesterday took offence at criticism of its record on greenhouse gas emissions, telling the delegation from Canberra that Australia's emissions would be higher if it had a population of 1.3billion.
In a session at the UN Climate Conference chaired by Australian Greenhouse Office director Howard Bamsey, a Chinese delegate reacted to Environment Minister Ian Campbell's assertion that China would emit more greenhouse gases than any other country by 2010.
As China spelt out its aim to reduce energy consumption by 2010, delegation representative Gao Guangsheng reportedly twice pointed out that China's population was 65 times the size of Australia's, according to Greenpeace Australia spokeswoman Catherine Fitzpatrick, an observer at the session.
Ms Fitzpatrick said the Chinese delegation met the Australian delegation following the circulation of the offending media release. She said no details had been released of their discussion.
"Australia's comments are the equivalent of the Australian Environment Minister sitting in a four-wheel-drive telling the Chinese Environment Minister to get off his bicycle to stop climate change," Ms Fitzpatrick said.
The Australian delegation's media release follows a report by the International Energy Agency - revealed in The Australian on November 2 - that said China was going to be the biggest emitter of carbon by 2010, 10 years earlier than previously thought.
China is a major trading partner of Australia and a member of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), which also includes India, Japan, South Korea and the US, working on non-market measures to address climate change.
Tensions between the AP6 partners came as the US rejected pleas by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and dismissed his charge that there was a "frightening lack of leadership" in fighting global warming.
It also came as the European Commission proposed that airline passengers on all flights arriving or departing from European Union airports pay up to $67 extra for a return ticket to cover the environmental damage caused by their flights. The proposal to address climate change is bound to infuriate US and Australian airlines, which would have to buy permits to cover their emissions on their European routes.
In Nairobi, plans to set new, tougher emissions targets for rich countries under the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 have stalled as industry signals growing concerns with the cost of some proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Negotiators could not agree on any plan to reach a global target nor a concrete timetable on whenthe commitment should be finalised.
Most developed countries are likely to exceed their current weaker pre-2012 Kyoto targets even with 10 years' planning and the introduction of a European emissions trading scheme last year. New negotiations for tougher commitments post-2012 were launched at the UN conference in Montreal last year to ensure that there was no emissions gap following the end of the Kyoto ratification period between 2008 and 2012.
The muted outcome on new targets by negotiators from EU and other developed countries comes despite strong rhetoric from environment ministers from signatory nations at the Nairobi conference. The UN conference also appears unlikely to find a solution to the emerging standoff between the developed and developing countries, which has stalled a mandatory review of the operation of the Kyoto Protocol.
Developing countries negotiating under the Group of 77 umbrella are concerned the review may open the door for them to be included in mandatory targets under a new post-2012 arrangement. This is despite the explicit reassurance of Finnish Environment Minister Jan-Erik Enestam that the EU had no intention of trying to draw developing countries into a future trading regime.
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